The present invention relates to a packaging apparatus, in particular for making bags for products for infusion, such as tea, coffee, chamomile, etc.
The many types of bags used for the infusion of products such as tea, coffee or chamomile (the best known having a single or double lobe shape), include some with a particular shape which do not comply with the typical shapes currently used, but use packaging materials and configurations which cannot be adapted to the normal automatic apparatus which make the above-mentioned conventional single or double lobe filter bags.
The bags made by the apparatus which is the object of the present invention are of the "bundle" type, for example, as illustrated in patent GB-450.703 and are made from a piece of fabric preferably with a wide weft (e.g.: gauze) upon which a dose of product for infusion is deposited and which is closed in the piece of fabric by raising the sides of the fabric towards a single point, which forms the mouth of the bag, thus creating a bundle containing the dose of product.
The mouth of the bag is closed by bringing together the free sides and firmly blocking them together in this position, using a metal ring or a knotted thread wound around the zone below, close to the point at which the free sides are brought together.
If the sides are held together by a metal ring, as the ring and bag are put together, the end of a thread is attached to the ring, the opposite end of the thread being free and having a pick-up label zone, designed to allow the bag to be handled when immersed in a liquid to make the infusion.
If the bag is tied with a thread, it is a portion of the same thread which extends for attachment to the free end of this portion of the pick-up label zone thread.
The above-mentioned bag with thread closure is currently made manually by operators who pick up the piece of fabric upon which the product is deposited, close it by bringing together the edges, then tie the thread in place and attach the pick-up label zone.